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Balkans
The Balkans (/ˈbɔːlkǝnz/ BAWL-kǝnz), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a
geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical
definitions.[1][2][3] The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch
throughout the whole of Bulgaria. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in
the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish
Straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula
is variously defined.[4] The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, 2,925 metres
(9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.

Location map of the Balkan Peninsula

Topographic map of the Balkan Peninsula

The concept of the Balkan Peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune
in 1808,[5] who mistakenly considered the Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain
system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. The term
Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for Rumelia in the 19th century, the European provinces of

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the Ottoman Empire. It had a geopolitical

Balkans
rather than a geographical definition, which
was further promoted during the creation of
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the early 20th
century. The definition of the Balkan
Peninsula's natural borders does not
coincide with the technical definition of a
peninsula; hence modern geographers
reject the idea of a Balkan Peninsula, while
historical scholars usually discuss the
Balkans as a region. The term has acquired Geographical map of the Balkan Peninsula
a stigmatized and pejorative meaning
Geography
related to the process of Balkanization.[4][6]
The alternative term used for the region is Location Southeastern

Southeast Europe. Europe

Coordinates 42°N 22°E (http

Name s://geohack.toolfo
rge.org/geohack.p
hp?pagename=Bal
Etymology kans&params=42
_N_22_E_source:
The origin of the word Balkan is obscure; it
wikidata_type:isl
may be related to Turkish bālk 'mud' (from
e)
Proto-Turkic *bal 'mud, clay; thick or gluey
substance', cf. also Turkic bal 'honey'), and Area 466,827–562,614 km2

the Turkish suffix an 'swampy forest'[7] or (180,243–217,226 sq mi)

Persian balā-khāna 'big high house'.[8] Highest elevation 2,925 m (9596 ft)

Related words are also found in other Turkic
Highest point Musala (Bulgaria)
languages: Karakhanid balčɨq/balɨq, Turkish
balčɨk, Tatar balčɨq, Middle Turkic Administration
balčɨq/palčɨq, Uzbek balčiq, Uighur balčuq,
See below
Azerbaidzhani palčɨg, Turkmen palčɨq,
Khakassian palčax, Oyrat bal-qaš, Khalaj Demographics
palčoq, Chuvash pɨlǯk, Yakut bɨlɨ̄k, Tuvinian
Population ca. 60 million (45
balɣaš/malɣaš, Tofalar balxaš, Kazakh
million on the
balšɨq/balqaš, Noghai balšɨq, Bashkir peninsula)
balsɨq, Karaim balčɨq, Salar palčɨx, Kumyk

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balčɨq.[9][10] It was used mainly during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In modern Turkish
balkan means 'chain of wooded mountains'.[11][12]

Historical names and meaning

Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages

From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains were called by the
local Thracian[13] name Haemus.[14] According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king
Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has
remained with his name. A reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev
considers that Haemus (Αἷµος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain
ridge'.[15] A third possibility is that "Haemus" (Αἵµος) derives from the Greek word "haima"
(αἷµα) meaning 'blood'. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan
Typhon. Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains,
from which they got their name.[16]

Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period

The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the
Haemus Mountains are referred to as Balkan.[17] The first attested time the name "Balkan"
was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to
Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco, an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat.[18]
The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565.[8] There has been no other
documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, although other Turkic
tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region.[8] There is also a claim
about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an
unscholarly assertion.[8] The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its general
meaning of mountain, as in Koḏj̱a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊, but
especially it was applied to the Haemus mountain.[19][20] The name is still preserved in
Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains)[21] and the Balkan Region of
Turkmenistan. English traveler John Bacon Sawrey Morritt introduced this term into English
literature at the end of the 18th century, and other authors started applying the name to
the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The concept of the "Balkans" was
created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808,[22] who mistakenly considered it
as the dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic
Sea to the Black Sea.[23][24][4] During the 1820s, "Balkan became the preferred although

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not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers... Among Russian
travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term".[25] In
European books printed until late 1800s it was also known as Illyrian Peninsula or Illyrische
Halbinsel in German.[26]

Evolution of meaning in 19th and 20th century

The term was not commonly used in geographical literature until the mid-19th century
because already then scientists like Carl Ritter warned that only the part South of the
Balkan Mountains can be considered as a peninsula and considered it to be renamed as
"Greek peninsula". Other prominent geographers who didn't agree with Zeune were
Hermann Wagner, Theobald Fischer, Marion Newbigin, Albrecht Penck, while Austrian
diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn in 1869 for the same territory used the term
Südostereuropäische Halbinsel ("Southeasterneuropean peninsula"). Another reason it was
not commonly accepted as the definition of then European Turkey had a similar land
extent. However, after the Congress of Berlin (1878) there was a political need for a new
term and gradually "the Balkans" was revitalized, but in the maps, the northern border was
in Serbia and Montenegro without Greece (it only depicted the Ottoman occupied parts of
Europe), while Yugoslavian maps also included Croatia and Bosnia. The term Balkan
Peninsula was a synonym for European Turkey, the political borders of former Ottoman
Empire provinces.[4][24][27]

The usage of the term changed in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th
century when was embraced by Serbian geographers, most prominently by Jovan Cvijić.[23]
It was done with political reasoning as affirmation for Serbian nationalism on the whole
territory of the South Slavs, and also included anthropological and ethnological studies of
the South Slavs through which were claimed various nationalistic and racialist theories.[23]
Through such policies and Yugoslavian maps the term was elevated to the modern status
of a geographical region.[24] The term acquired political nationalistic connotations far from
its initial geographic meaning,[4] arising from political changes from the late 19th century to
the creation of post–World War I Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes in 1918).[24] After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term
"Balkans" acquired a negative political meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, as well
in worldwide casual usage for war conflicts and fragmentation of territory (see
Balkanization).[23][24]

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Southeast Europe

In part due to the historical and political connotations of the term "Balkans",[28] especially
since the military conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western half of the region, the
term "Southeast Europe" is becoming increasingly popular.[24][29] A European Union
initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe. The online newspaper
Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003.

Current

In other languages of the region, the region is known as:

• Slavic languages:
◦ Bulgarian and Macedonian: Балĸансĸи Полуостров, transliterated: Balkanski
Poluostrov

◦ Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian: Balkansko poluostrvo / Балĸансĸо полуострво

◦ Bosnian and Croatian: Balkanski poluotok

◦ Slovene: Balkanski polotok

• Romance languages:
◦ Aromanian: Peninsula Balcanicã or Balcani

◦ Romanian: Peninsula Balcanică or Balcani

◦ Italian: Penisola balcanica or Balcani

• Other languages:
◦ Albanian: Gadishulli Ballkanik and Siujdhesa e Ballkanit

◦ Greek: Βαλκανική χερσόνησος, transliterated: Valkaniki chersonisos

◦ Turkish: Balkan Yarımadası or Balkanlar

Definitions and boundaries

Balkan Peninsula

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The Balkan states

 The Balkan Peninsula using the
 Danube–Sava–Soča border
  Political communities that are
included in the Balkans[30]
  Political communities that are
often included in the Balkans[30]

The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea
(including the Ionian and Aegean seas) and the Sea of Marmara to the south and the Black
Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers.
[31][32] The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about 470,000 km2 (181,000 sq mi)
(slightly smaller than Spain). It is more or less identical to the region known as Southeast
Europe.[33][34][35]

From 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria and some Dalmatian areas (like Zara,
today's Zadar) that are within the general definition of the Balkan Peninsula. The current
territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula.
However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by
Italian geographers, due to their definition of the Balkans that limits its western border to
the Kupa River.[36]

Share of total area in brackets[37] within the Balkan Peninsula by country, by the Danube–
Sava definition, with Bulgaria and Greece occupying almost the half of the territory of the
Balkan Peninsula, with around 23% of the total area each.

Countries wholly within the Balkan Peninsula:

•    Albania: 28,749 km2 (100% of total land)

•  Bosnia and Herzegovina: 51,180 km2 (100%)

 
•    Bulgaria: 110,993.6 km2[38][39] (100%); according to another source, 110,372 km2[40]
(100%)

•    Kosovo[a]: 10,908 km2 (100%)

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•  Montenegro: 13,810 km2 (100%)

 
•  North Macedonia: 25,713 km2 (100%)
 
Countries mostly within the Balkan Peninsula:

•    Greece (mainland): 110,496 km2 (83.7%); according to another source,

106,247 km2[41] (80.5%); including islands adjacent to the Balkan Peninsula, 126,023 km2
(95.5%)

•    Serbia (Central Serbia) 55,968 km2 (63.2%); excluding Kosovo (72.2%)

Countries partially within the Balkan Peninsula:

•  Croatia (southern mainland): 24,013 km2 (42.4%)[42][43]

 
•  Slovenia (south-western part): 5,000 km2 (24.7%)
 
Countries mostly outside the Balkan Peninsula:

•    Romania (Northern Dobruja): 11,000 km2 (4.6%)

•   Turkey (East Thrace[b]): 23,764 km2 (3%)

•    Italy (Monfalcone and Trieste): 200 km2 (0.1%)

Balkans

The term "the Balkans" is used more generally for the region; it includes states in the
region, which may extend beyond the peninsula, and is not defined by the geography of the
peninsula itself.

Historians state the Balkans comprise Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.[44][45][46]
Its total area is usually given as 666,700 km2 (257,400 sq mi)[a] and the population as
59,297,000 (est. 2002).[45] Italy, although having a small part of its territory on the Balkan
Peninsula, is not included in the term "the Balkans".

The term Southeast Europe is also used for the region, with various definitions. Individual
Balkan states can also be considered part of other regions, including Southern Europe,
Eastern Europe, and Central Europe. Turkey, including its European territory, is generally
included in Western Asia or the Middle East.

Note: a The area figure provided by the Encyclopædia Britannica includes Romania but

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excludes Greece. If Greece is included, the total area of the Balkans would be 790,011 km2.

Western Balkans

Western Balkan countries – Albania,

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Kosovo, Montenegro, North
Macedonia, and Serbia. Croatia
(yellow) joined the EU in 2013.

The Western Balkans is a political neologism coined to refer to Albania and the territory of
the former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia, since the early 1990s.[e] The region of the Western
Balkans, a coinage exclusively used in Pan-European parlance, roughly corresponds to the
Dinaric Alps territory.

The institutions of the European Union have generally used the term Western Balkans to
mean the Balkan area that includes countries that are not members of the European Union,
while others refer to the geographical aspects.[d] Each of these countries aims to be part of
the future enlargement of the European Union and reach democracy and transmission
scores but, until then, they will be strongly connected with the pre-EU waiting program
Central European Free Trade Agreement.[47] Croatia, considered part of the Western
Balkans, joined the EU in July 2013.[48]

Criticism of the geographical definition

The term is criticized for having a geopolitical, rather than a geographical meaning and
definition, as a multiethnic and political area in the southeastern part of Europe.[24] The
geographical term of a peninsula defines that the water border must be longer than land,
with the land side being the shortest in the triangle, but that is not the case with the Balkan
Peninsula.[23][24] Both Eastern and Western water cathetus from Odesa to Cape Matapan

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(c. 1230–1350 km) and from Trieste to Cape Matapan (c. 1270–1285 km) are shorter than
land cathetus from Trieste to Odessa (c. 1330–1365 km).[23][24] The land has a too wide
line connected to the continent to be technically proclaimed as a peninsula - Szczecin
(920 km) and Rostock (950 km) at the Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odessa yet it is
not considered as another European peninsula.[23] Since the late 19th and early 20th-
century literature is not known where is exactly the northern border between the peninsula
and the continent,[23][24] with an issue, whether the rivers are suitable for its definition.[4]
In the studies the Balkans' natural borders, especially the northern border, are often
avoided to be addressed, considered as a "fastidious problem" by André Blanc in
Geography of the Balkans (1965), while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in Balkan
Economic History (1971) noted that "modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting the old
idea of a Balkan Peninsula".[4] Another issue is the name because the Balkan Mountains
which are mostly located in Northern Bulgaria are not dominating the region by length and
area like the Dinaric Alps.[23] An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered a territory
South of the Balkan Mountains, with a possible name "Greek-Albanian Peninsula."[4][24] The
term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe which again is not properly defined by
geographical factors yet historical borders of the Balkans.[24]

Croatian geographers and academics are highly critical of inclusion of Croatia within the
broad geographical, social-political and historical context of the Balkans, while the
neologism Western Balkans is perceived as a humiliation of Croatia by the European
political powers.[23] According to M. S. Altić, the term has two different meanings,
"geographical, ultimately undefined, and cultural, extremely negative, and recently strongly
motivated by the contemporary political context".[24] In 2018, President of Croatia Kolinda
Grabar-Kitarović stated that the use of the term "Western Balkans" should be avoided
because it does not imply only a geographic area, but also negative connotations, and
instead must be perceived as and called Southeast Europe because it is part of Europe.[49]

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said of the definition,[50]

This very alibi confronts us with the first of many paradoxes concerning
Balkan: its geographic delimitation was never precise. It is as if one can never
receive a definitive answer to the question, "Where does it begin?" For Serbs,
it begins down there in Kosovo or Bosnia, and they defend the Christian
civilization against this Europe's Other. For Croats, it begins with the
Orthodox, despotic, Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia defends the

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values of democratic Western civilization. For Slovenes, it begins with

Croatia, and we Slovenes are the last outpost of the peaceful Mitteleuropa.
For Italians and Austrians, it begins with Slovenia, where the reign of the
Slavic hordes starts. For Germans, Austria itself, on account of its historic
connections, is already tainted by Balkanic corruption and inefficiency. For
some arrogant Frenchmen, Germany is associated with the Balkanian Eastern
savagery—up to the extreme case of some conservative anti-European-Union
Englishmen for whom, in an implicit way, it is ultimately the whole of
continental Europe itself that functions as a kind of Balkan Turkish global
empire with Brussels as the new Constantinople, the capricious despotic
center threatening English freedom and sovereignty. So Balkan is always the
Other: it lies somewhere else, always a little bit more to the southeast, with
the paradox that, when we reach the very bottom of the Balkan peninsula, we
again magically escape Balkan. Greece is no longer Balkan proper, but the
cradle of our Western civilization.

Nature and natural resources

Panorama of the Balkan Mountains

(Stara Planina). Its highest peak is
Botev at a height of 2,376 m.

Sutjeska National Park contains

Perućica, which is the largest
primeval forest in the Balkans, and

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one of the last remaining in Europe.

View toward Rila, the highest

mountain of the Balkans and
Southeast Europe (2,925 m).

Lake Skadar is the largest lake in

the Balkans and Southern Europe.

Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from the northwest to southeast.
The main ranges are the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina in Bulgarian language), running
from the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria to the border with Serbia, the Rila-Rhodope massif in
southern Bulgaria, the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro,
the Korab-Šar mountains which spreads from Kosovo to Albania and North Macedonia, and
the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central Greece and the Albanian
Alps, and the Alps at the northwestern border. The highest mountain of the region is Rila in
Bulgaria, with Musala at 2,925 m, second being Mount Olympus in Greece, with Mytikas at
2,917 m, and Pirin mountain with Vihren, also in Bulgaria, being the third at 2915 m.[51][52]
The karst field or polje is a common feature of the landscape.

On the Adriatic and Aegean coasts the climate is Mediterranean, on the Black Sea coast
the climate is humid subtropical and oceanic, and inland it is humid continental. In the
northern part of the peninsula and on the mountains, winters are frosty and snowy, while
summers are hot and dry. In the southern part, winters are milder. The humid continental
climate is predominant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, northern Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo,
northern Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the interior of Albania and
Serbia. Meanwhile, the other less common climates, the humid subtropical and oceanic
climates, are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey).

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The Mediterranean climate is seen on the Adriatic coasts of Albania, Croatia and
Montenegro, as well as the Ionian coasts of Albania and Greece, in addition to the Aegean
coasts of Greece and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey).[53]

Over the centuries forests have been cut down and replaced with bush. In the southern
part and on the coast there is evergreen vegetation. Inland there are woods typical of
Central Europe (oak and beech, and in the mountains, spruce, fir and pine). The tree line in
the mountains lies at the height of 1800–2300 m. The land provides habitats for numerous
endemic species, including extraordinarily abundant insects and reptiles that serve as food
for a variety of birds of prey and rare vultures.

The soils are generally poor, except on the plains, where areas with natural grass, fertile
soils and warm summers provide an opportunity for tillage. Elsewhere, land cultivation is
mostly unsuccessful because of the mountains, hot summers and poor soils, although
certain cultures such as olive and grape flourish.

Resources of energy are scarce, except in Kosovo, where considerable coal, lead, zinc,
chromium and silver deposits are located.[54] Other deposits of coal, especially in Bulgaria,
Serbia and Bosnia, also exist. Lignite deposits are widespread in Greece. Petroleum scarce
reserves exist in Greece, Serbia and Albania. Natural gas deposits are scarce. Hydropower
is in wide use, from over 1,000 dams. The often relentless bora wind is also being
harnessed for power generation.

Metal ores are more usual than other raw materials. Iron ore is rare, but in some countries
there is a considerable amount of copper, zinc, tin, chromite, manganese, magnesite and
bauxite. Some metals are exported.

History and geopolitical significance

Antiquity

The Jireček Line

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Pula Arena, the only remaining

Roman amphitheatre to have four
side towers and with all three
Roman architectural orders entirely
preserved.

Remnants of the Felix Romuliana

Imperial Palace, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site

Apollonia ruins near Fier, Albania

The Balkan region was the first area in Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures
in the Neolithic era. The Balkans have been inhabited since the Paleolithic and are the route
by which farming from the Middle East spread to Europe during the Neolithic (7th
millennium BC).[55][56] The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in the
Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia and spread west and north into
Central Europe, particularly through Pannonia. Two early culture-complexes have
developed in the region, Starčevo culture and Vinča culture. The Balkans are also the
location of the first advanced civilizations. Vinča culture developed a form of proto-writing
before the Sumerians and Minoans, known as the Old European script, while the bulk of the
symbols had been created in the period between 4500 and 4000 BC, with the ones on the
Tărtăria clay tablets even dating back to around 5300 BC.[57]

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The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical position; historically the area
was known as a crossroads of cultures. It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek
bodies of the Roman Empire, the destination of a massive influx of pagan Bulgars and
Slavs, an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met,[58] as well as the meeting
point between Islam and Christianity.

The Balkans in 850 AD

In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians,
Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians, and other ancient groups. The Achaemenid Persian Empire
incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia, Thrace, parts of present-day
Bulgaria, and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania between the late sixth and the first
half of the fifth-century BC into its territories.[59] Later the Roman Empire conquered the
region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language, but significant parts still
remained under classical Greek influence. The Romans considered the Rhodope Mountains
to be the northern limit of the Peninsula of Haemus and the same limit applied
approximately to the border between Greek and Latin use in the region (later called the
Jireček Line).[60] However large spaces south of Jireček Line were and are inhabited by
Vlachs (Aromanians), the Romance-speaking heirs of Roman Empire.[61][62] The Bulgars
and Slavs arrived in the sixth-century and began assimilating and displacing already-
assimilated (through Romanization and Hellenization) older inhabitants of the northern and
central Balkans, forming the Bulgarian Empire.[63] During the Middle Ages, the Balkans
became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine Roman and the Bulgarian
Empires. Prior to the Slavic landing, parts of the western peninsula have been home to the
Proto-Albanians. Including cities like Nish, Shtip, Skopje and others. This can be proven
through the development of the names, for example Naissos > Nish, Astibos > Shtip
(compare lat. amicus > alb. mik), Scupi > Shkup all follow Albanian phonetic sound rules
and have entered Slavic, demonstrating that Proto-Albanian was spoken prior to the Slavic
invasion of the Balkans.[64][65][66][67]

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Early modern period

By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had become the controlling force in
the region after expanding from Anatolia through Thrace to the Balkans. Many people in
the Balkans place their greatest folk heroes in the era of either the onslaught or the retreat
of the Ottoman Empire.[68] As examples, for Greeks, Constantine XI Palaiologos and
Kolokotronis; and for Serbs, Miloš Obilić, Tsar Lazar and Karadjordje; for Albanians, George
Kastrioti Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians, Nikola Karev[69] and Goce Delčev;[69] for
Bulgarians, Vasil Levski, Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev and for Croats, Nikola
Šubić Zrinjski.

Modern political history of the

Balkans from 1796 onwards

Hagia Sophia, built in sixth century

Constantinople (now Istanbul,
Turkey) as an Eastern Orthodox
cathedral, later a mosque, then a
museum, and now both a mosque
and a museum

In the past several centuries, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in
and around the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of
economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of
gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans have been the least developed part of Europe.
According to Halil İnalcık, "The population of the Balkans, according to one estimate, fell

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from a high of 8 million in the late 16th-century to only 3 million by the mid-eighteenth.
This estimate is based on Ottoman documentary evidence."[70]

Most of the Balkan nation-states emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as they
gained independence from the Ottoman Empire or the Austro-Hungarian empire: Greece in
1821, Serbia, and Montenegro in 1878, Romania in 1881, Bulgaria in 1908 and Albania in
1912.

Recent history

Tsarevets, a medieval stronghold in

the former capital of the Bulgarian
Empire – Veliko Tarnovo

The 13th-century Church of St.

John at Kaneo and the Ohrid Lake in
North Macedonia. The lake and
town were declared a World
Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.

World Wars

In 1912–1913 the First Balkan War broke out when the nation-states of Bulgaria, Serbia,
Greece and Montenegro united in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of
the war, almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were captured
and partitioned among the allies. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent
Albanian state. Bulgaria insisted on its status quo territorial integrity, divided and shared by
the Great Powers next to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) in other boundaries and on the

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pre-war Bulgarian-Serbian agreement. Bulgaria was provoked by the backstage deals

between its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on the allocation of the spoils at the end of
the First Balkan War. At the time, Bulgaria was fighting at the main Thracian Front. Bulgaria
marks the beginning of Second Balkan War when it attacked them. The Serbs and the
Greeks repulsed single attacks, but when the Greek army invaded Bulgaria together with an
unprovoked Romanian intervention in the back, Bulgaria collapsed. The Ottoman Empire
used the opportunity to recapture Eastern Thrace, establishing its new western borders
that still stand today as part of modern Turkey.

The World War I was sparked in the Balkans in 1914 when members of Young Bosnia, a
revolutionary organization with predominantly Serb and pro-Yugoslav members,
assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Bosnia and
Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo. That caused a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia,
which—through the existing chains of alliances—led to the World War I. The Ottoman
Empire soon joined the Central Powers becoming one of the three empires participating in
that alliance. The next year Bulgaria joined the Central Powers attacking Serbia, which was
successfully fighting Austro-Hungary to the north for a year. That led to Serbia's defeat
and the intervention of the Entente in the Balkans which sent an expeditionary force to
establish a new front, the third one of that war, which soon also became static. The
participation of Greece in the war three years later, in 1918, on the part of the Entente
finally altered the balance between the opponents leading to the collapse of the common
German-Bulgarian front there, which caused the exit of Bulgaria from the war, and in turn,
the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ending the First World War.[71]

Between the two wars, in order to maintain the geopolitical status quo in the region after
the end of World War I, the Balkan Pact, or Balkan Entente, was formed by a treaty between
Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens.[72]

With the start of the World War II, all Balkan countries, with the exception of Greece, were
allies of Nazi Germany, having bilateral military agreements or being part of the Axis Pact.
Fascist Italy expanded the war in the Balkans by using its protectorate Albania to invade
Greece. After repelling the attack, the Greeks counterattacked, invading Italy-held Albania
and causing Nazi Germany's intervention in the Balkans to help its ally.[73] Days before the
German invasion, a successful coup d'état in Belgrade by neutral military personnel seized
power.[74]

Although the new government reaffirmed its intentions to fulfill its obligations as a member

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of the Axis,[75] Germany, with Bulgaria, invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia
immediately disintegrated when those loyal to the Serbian King and the Croatian units
mutinied.[76] Greece resisted, but, after two months of fighting, collapsed and was
occupied. The two countries were partitioned between the three Axis allies, Bulgaria,
Germany and Italy, and the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of Italy and
Germany.

During the occupation, the population suffered considerable hardship due to repression
and starvation, to which the population reacted by creating a mass resistance
movement.[77] Together with the early and extremely heavy winter of that year (which
caused hundreds of thousands of deaths among the poorly fed population), the German
invasion had disastrous effects in the timetable of the planned invasion in Russia causing a
significant delay,[78] which had major consequences during the course of the war.[79]

Finally, at the end of 1944, the Soviets entered Romania and Bulgaria forcing the Germans
out of the Balkans. They left behind a region largely ruined as a result of wartime
exploitation.

Cold War

During the Cold War, most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist
governments. Greece became the first battleground of the emerging Cold War. The Truman
Doctrine was the US response to the civil war, which raged from 1944 to 1949. This civil
war, unleashed by the Communist Party of Greece, backed by communist volunteers from
neighboring countries (Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia), led to massive American
assistance for the non-communist Greek government. With this backing, Greece managed
to defeat the partisans and, ultimately, remained one of the two only non-communist
countries in the region with Turkey.

However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania
(1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito
(1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria and instead
sought closer relations with the West, later even spearheaded, together with India and
Egypt the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist
China, later adopting an isolationist position.

On 28 February 1953, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia signed the treaty of Agreement of
Friendship and Cooperation in Ankara to form the Balkan Pact of 1953. The treaty's aim

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was to deter Soviet expansion in the Balkans and eventual creation of a joint military staff
for the three countries. When the pact was signed, Turkey and Greece were members of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while Yugoslavia was a non-aligned
communist state. With the Pact, Yugoslavia was able to indirectly associate itself with
NATO. Though, it was planned for the pact to remain in force for 20 years, it dissolved in
1960.[80]

As the only non-communist countries, Greece and Turkey were (and still are) part of NATO
composing the southeastern wing of the alliance.

Post–Cold War

In the 1990s, the transition of the regions' ex-Eastern bloc countries towards democratic
free-market societies went peacefully. While in the non-aligned Yugoslavia, Wars between
the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and
their people voted for independence on their respective countries' referendums. Serbia, in
turn, declared the dissolution of the union as unconstitutional and the Yugoslav People's
Army unsuccessfully tried to maintain the status quo. Slovenia and Croatia declared
independence on 25 June 1991, which prompted the Croatian War of Independence in
Croatia and the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The Yugoslav forces eventually withdrew from
Slovenia in 1991 while the war in Croatia continued until late 1995. The two were followed
by Macedonia and later Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Bosnia being the most affected by
the fighting. The wars prompted the United Nations' intervention and NATO ground and air
forces took action against Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and FR Yugoslavia (i.e.
Serbia and Montenegro).

State entities on the former territory of

Yugoslavia, 2008

From the dissolution of Yugoslavia six stated achieved internationally recognized

sovereignty: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and
Serbia; all of them are traditionally included in the Balkans which is often a controversial

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matter of dispute. In 2008, while under UN administration, Kosovo declared independence

(according to the official Serbian policy, Kosovo is still an internal autonomous region). In
July 2010, the International Court of Justice, ruled that the declaration of independence
was legal.[81] Most UN member states recognise Kosovo. After the end of the wars a
revolution broke in Serbia and Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian communist leader (elected
president between 1989 and 2000), was overthrown and handed for a trial to the
International Criminal Tribunal for crimes against the International Humanitarian Law during
the Yugoslav wars. Milošević died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could have
been released. Ιn 2001 an Albanian uprising in Macedonia (North Macedonia) forced the
country to give local autonomy to the ethnic Albanians in the areas where they
predominate.

With the dissolution of Yugoslavia, an issue emerged over the name under which the
former (federated) republic of Macedonia would internationally be recognized, between the
new country and Greece. Being the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia (see Vardar
Macedonia), the federated republic under the Yugoslav identity had the name (Socialist)
Republic of Macedonia on which it declared its sovereignty in 1991. Greece, having a large
homonymous region (see Macedonia), opposed the usage of the name as an indication of a
nationality and ethnicity. Thus dubbed Macedonia naming dispute was resolved under UN
mediation in the June 2018 Prespa agreement was reached, which saw the country's
renaming into North Macedonia in 2019.

Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South-West
Asia (Asia Minor and the Middle East). Since 2000, all Balkan countries are friendly towards
the EU and the US.[82]

Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981, while Slovenia is a member
since 2004, Bulgaria and Romania are members since 2007, and Croatia is a member since
2013. In 2005, the European Union decided to start accession negotiations with candidate
countries; Turkey, and North Macedonia were accepted as candidates for EU membership.
In 2012, Montenegro started accession negotiations with the EU. In 2014, Albania is an
official candidate for accession to the EU. In 2015, Serbia was expected to start accession
negotiations with the EU, however this process has been stalled over the recognition of
Kosovo as an independent state by existing EU member states.[83]

Greece and Turkey have been NATO members since 1952. In March 2004, Bulgaria,
Romania and Slovenia have become members of NATO. As of April 2009,[84] Albania and

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Croatia are members of NATO. Montenegro joined in June 2017.[85] The most recent
member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.

Almost all other countries have expressed a desire to join both the EU or NATO at some
point in the future.[86]

Politics and economy

View from Santorini in Greece.

Tourism is an important part of the
Greek economy.

Dubrovnik in Croatia, a UNESCO

World Heritage Site since 1979

View towards Sveti Stefan in

Montenegro. Tourism makes up a
significant part of the Montenegrin
economy.

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View towards Piran in Slovenia.

Tourism is a rapidly growing sector
of the Slovenian economy.

Golden Sands, a popular tourist

destination on the Bulgarian coast.

Belgrade is a major industrial city

and the capital of Serbia.

The Stari Most in Mostar, a

UNESCO World Heritage Site since
2005.

Currently, all of the states are republics, but until World War II all countries were
monarchies. Most of the republics are parliamentary, excluding Romania and Bosnia which
are semi-presidential. All the states have open market economies, most of which are in the
upper-middle-income range ($4,000–12,000 p.c.), except Croatia, Romania, Greece, and
Slovenia that have high income economies (over $12,000 p.c.), and are classified with very

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high HDI, along with Bulgaria, in contrast to the remaining states, which are classified with
high HDI. The states from the former Eastern Bloc that formerly had planned economy
system and Turkey mark gradual economic growth each year. The gross domestic product
per capita is highest in Slovenia (over $29,000), followed by Greece (~$20,000), Croatia,
Romania, Bulgaria (over $11,000), Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia (between $10,000 and
$9,000), and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, North Macedonia (~$7,000) and Kosovo
($5,000).[87] The Gini coefficient, which indicates the level of difference by monetary
welfare of the layers, is on the second level at the highest monetary equality in Albania,
Bulgaria, and Serbia, on the third level in Greece, Montenegro and Romania, on the fourth
level in North Macedonia, on the fifth level in Turkey, and the most unequal by Gini
coefficient is Bosnia at the eighth level which is the penultimate level and one of the
highest in the world. The unemployment is lowest in Romania and Bulgaria (around 5%),
followed by Serbia and Albania (11–12%), Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, North Macedonia
(13–16%), Montenegro (~18%), and Kosovo (~25%).[88]

• On political, social and economic criteria the divisions are as follows:

◦ Territories members of the European Union: Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania,
Slovenia

◦ Territories currently in negotiation process for EU membership: Albania, North

Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey

◦ Territories with "potential candidates" status for EU membership: Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Kosovo

• On border control and trade criteria the divisions are as follows:

◦ Territories in the Schengen Area: Greece, Slovenia

◦ Territories that are legally bound to join the Schengen Area: Bulgaria, Croatia,
Romania

◦ Territories in a customs union with the EU: Turkey

◦ Territories members of the Central European Free Trade Agreement: Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia.

• On currency criteria, the divisions are as follows:

◦ Territories members of the Eurozone: Greece, Slovenia

◦ Territories using the Euro without authorization by the EU: Kosovo, Montenegro

◦ Territories using national currencies and are candidates for the Eurozone: Bulgaria

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(lev), Croatia (kuna), Romania (leu)

◦ Territories using national currencies: Albania (lek), Bosnia and Herzegovina

(convertible mark), North Macedonia (denar), Serbia (dinar), Turkey (lira).

• On military criteria the divisions are as follows:

◦ Member territories of NATO: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North
Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey

◦ Member territories of the Partnership for Peace with Individual Partnership Action
Plan and Membership Action Plan for joining NATO: Bosnia and Herzegovina

◦ Member territories of the Partnership for Peace: Serbia

• On the recent political, social and economic criteria there are two groups of countries:
◦ Former communist territories: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia

◦ Capitalist and aligned to the West during the Cold War: Greece, Turkey

◦ During the Cold War the Balkans were disputed between the two blocks. Greece and
Turkey were members of NATO, Bulgaria and Romania of the Warsaw Pact, while
Yugoslavia was a proponent of a third way and was a founding member of the Non-
Aligned Movement. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina kept an observer status within the organization.

Regional organizations

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Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe

Southeast European Cooperation Process    members
(SEECP) member states    observers
   supporting partners

 
 

Southeast European Cooperative Initiative

Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)
(SECI)
   members
   members
   observers
   observers

See also the Black Sea regional organizations

Statistics

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Bosnia and
Albania Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo
Herzegovina

Flag          

     
Coat of arms  

Capital Tirana Sarajevo Sofia Zagreb Athens Pristina

28 17
3 March, 5 October, 26 June, 25 March,
Independence November, February,
1992 1908 1991 1821
1912 2008

Denis
Bećirović
Bajram Željka Rumen Zoran Katerina Vjosa
President
Begaj Cvijanović Radev Milanović Sakellaropoulou Osmani
Željko
Komšić

Prime Zoran Andrej Kyriakos

Edi Rama Galab Donev Albin Kurti
Minister Tegeltija Plenković Mitsotakis

Population 3,502,550
    7,000,039 4,076,246 10,722,287  
(2019)[89] 2,862,427 (2018)     1,795,666

Area 28,749 km2 51,197 km2 111,900 km2 56,594 km2 131,117 km2 10,908 km

Density 100/km2 69/km2 97/km2 74/km2 82/km2 159/km

Water area
4.7% 0.02% 2.22% 1.1% 0.99% 1.00%
(%)

GDP
(nominal,       $214.012 bln  
$15.418 bln $20.106 bln $66.250 bln $60.702 bln   $8.402 bln
2019)[91]

GDP (PPP,
      $312.267 bln  
2018)[91] $38.305 bln $47.590 bln $162.186 bln $107.362 bln   $20.912 bln

GDP per
$5,373 $5,742 $9,518 $14,950 $19,974 $4,649
capita          

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(nominal,
2019)[91]

GDP per
capita (PPP, $13,327 $13,583 $23,169 $26,256 $29,072 $11,664
         
2018)[91]

Gini Index 29.0 low 33.0 medium 39.6 29.0

29.7 low 32.3 medium  
(2018)[92] (2012)[93] (2011)[94] medium     (2017)

0.791 0.816 very 0.837 very 0.872 very 0.739

HDI (2018)[96]   0.769 high    
high   high high high (2016)

IHDI 0.705 0.658

    0.713 high 0.768 high 0.766 high N/A
(2018)[97] high medium      

Doesn't
Internet TLD .al .ba .bg .hr .gr
have

Calling code +355 +387 +359 +385 +30 +383

Demographics

The region is inhabited by Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Croats, Gorani,

Greeks, Istro-Romanians, Macedonians, Megleno-Romanians, Montenegrins, Serbs,
Slovenes, Romanians, Turks, and other ethnic groups which present minorities in certain
countries like the Romani and Ashkali.[45]

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Population Density/km2 Life expectancy

State
(2018)[99] (2018)[100] (2018)[101]

   Albania 2,870,324 100 78.3 years

 Bosnia and
  3,502,550 69 77.2 years
Herzegovina

   Bulgaria 7,050,034 64 79.9 years

 Croatia 4,105,493 73 76.2 years

 
   Greece 10,768,193 82 80.1 years

   Kosovo 1,798,506 165 77.7 years

 Montenegro 622,359 45 76.4 years

 
 North Macedonia 2,075,301 81 76.2 years
 
   Romania 19,523,621 82 76.3 years

   Serbia 7,001,444 90 76.5 years

 Slovenia 2,066,880 .102 80.3 years

 
   Turkey 11,929,013[102][c] 101 78.5 years

Religion

Map showing religious denominations

The region is a meeting point of Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Roman Catholic
Christianity.[103] Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both the Balkan Peninsula and
the Balkan region, The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history
and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.[104] A variety of different traditions of
each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own

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national church. A part of the population in the Balkans defines itself as irreligious.

Islam has a significant history in the region where Muslims make up a large percentage of
the population. A 2013 estimate placed the total Muslim population of the Balkans at
around 8 million.[105] Islam is the largest religion in nations like Albania, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, and Kosovo with significant minorities in Bulgaria, North Macedonia and
Montenegro. Smaller populations of Muslims are also found in Romania, Serbia and
Greece.[105]

Approximate distribution of
religions in Albania

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Territories in which the principal religion is Eastern

Religious minorities of these
Orthodoxy (with national churches in
territories[106]
parentheses)[106]

Bulgaria: 59% (Bulgarian Orthodox Church) Islam (8%) and undeclared (27%)

Islam (2%), Catholicism, other and

Greece: 81-90% (Greek Orthodox Church)
undeclared

Islam (19%), Catholicism (3%), other and

Montenegro: 72% (Serbian Orthodox Church)
undeclared (5%)

North Macedonia: 64% (Macedonian Orthodox Church) Islam (33%), Catholicism

Protestantism (6%), Catholicism (5%),

Romania: 81% (Romanian Orthodox Church)
other and undeclared (8%)

Catholicism (5%), Islam (3%),

Serbia: 84% (Serbian Orthodox Church) Protestantism (1%), other and
undeclared (6%)

Territories in which the principal religion is Religious minorities of these

Catholicism[106] territories[106]

Eastern Orthodoxy (4%), Islam (1%),

Croatia (86%)
other and undeclared (7%)

Islam (2%), Orthodox (2%), other and

Slovenia (57%)
undeclared (36%)

Religious minorities of these

Territories in which the principal religion is Islam[106]
territories[106]

Catholicism (10%), Orthodoxy (7%),

Albania (58%)
other and undeclared (24%)

Orthodoxy (31%), Catholicism (15%),

Bosnia and Herzegovina (51%)
other and undeclared (4%)

Catholicism (2%), Orthodoxy (2%), other

Kosovo (95%)
and undeclared (1%)

Turkey (90-99%[106]) Orthodoxy, Irreligious (5%-10%)

The Jewish communities of the Balkans were some of the oldest in Europe and date back
to ancient times. These communities were Sephardi Jews, except in Croatia and Slovenia,
where the Jewish communities were mainly Ashkenazi Jews. In Bosnia and Herzegovina,
the small and close-knit Jewish community is 90% Sephardic, and Ladino is still spoken
among the elderly. The Sephardi Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo has tombstones of a unique
shape and inscribed in ancient Ladino.[107] Sephardi Jews used to have a large presence in

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the city of Thessaloniki, and by 1900, some 80,000, or more than half of the population,
were Jews.[108] The Jewish communities in the Balkans suffered immensely during World
War II, and the vast majority were killed during the Holocaust. An exception was the
Bulgarian Jews, most of whom were saved by Boris III of Bulgaria, who resisted Adolf Hitler,
opposing their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Almost all of the few survivors
have emigrated to the (then) newly founded state of Israel and elsewhere. Almost no
Balkan country today has a significant Jewish minority.

Languages

Ethnic map of the Balkans

(1880)

Transhumance ways of the

Romance-speaking Vlach
shepherds in the past

The Balkan region today is a very diverse ethnolinguistic region, being home to multiple
Slavic and Romance languages, as well as Albanian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and others.
Romani is spoken by a large portion of the Romanis living throughout the Balkan countries.
Throughout history, many other ethnic groups with their own languages lived in the area,
among them Thracians, Illyrians, Romans, Celts and various Germanic tribes. All of the
aforementioned languages from the present and from the past belong to the wider Indo-
European language family, with the exception of the Turkic languages (e.g., Turkish and
Gagauz) and Hungarian.

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Most spoken
State Linguistic minorities[109]
language[109]

   Albania 98% Albanian 2% other

 Bosnia and 31% Serbian (official), 15% Croatian (official), 2%

  53% Bosnian
Herzegovina other

 Bulgaria 86% Bulgarian 8% Turkish, 4% Romani, 1% other, 1% unspecified

 Croatia 96% Croatian 1% Serbian, 3% other

 
   Greece 99% Greek 1% other

2% Bosnian, 2% Serbian (official), 1% Turkish, 1%

   Kosovo 94% Albanian
other

37% Montenegrin (official), 5% Albanian, 5% Bosnian,

 Montenegro 43% Serbian
  5% other, 4% unspecified

25% Albanian (official), 4% Turkish, 2% Romani, 1%

 North Macedonia 67% Macedonian
  Serbian, 2% other

 Romania 85% Romanian 6% Hungarian, 1% Romani

3% Hungarian, 2% Bosnian, 1% Romani, 3% other, 2%

   Serbia 88% Serbian
unspecified

 Slovenia 91% Slovene 5% Serbo-Croatian, 4% other

 
   Turkey 85% Turkish[110] 12% Kurdish, 3% other and unspecified[110]

Urbanization

Most of the states in the Balkans are predominantly urbanized, with the lowest number of
urban population as % of the total population found in Kosovo at under 40%, Bosnia and
Herzegovina at 40% and Slovenia at 50%.[111]

Panoramic view of Istanbul

A list of largest cities:

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City Country Agglomeration City proper Year

Istanbul[b]    Turkey 10,097,862 10,097,862 2019[112]

Athens    Greece 3,753,783 664,046 2018[113]

Bucharest    Romania 2,272,163 1,887,485 2018[114]

Sofia  Bulgaria 1,995,950 1,313,595 2018[115]

 
Belgrade    Serbia 1,659,440 1,119,696 2018[116]

Zagreb  Croatia 1,113,111 792,875 2011[117]

 
Tekirdağ   Turkey 1,055,412 1,055,412 2019[118]

Thessaloniki    Greece 1,012,297 325,182 2018[113]

Tirana    Albania 800,986 418,495 2018[119]

Ljubljana  Slovenia 537,712 292,988 2018[120]

 
Skopje  North Macedonia 506,926 444,800 2018[121]
 
Constanța    Romania 425,916 283,872 2018[114]

Craiova    Romania 420,000 269,506 2018[114]

Edirne    Turkey 413,903 306,464 2019[122]

Sarajevo  Bosnia and Herzegovina 413,593 275,524 2018

 
Cluj-Napoca    Romania 411,379 324,576 2018[114]

Plovdiv Bulgaria 396,092 411,567 2018[115]

Varna  Bulgaria 383,075 395,949 2018[115]

 
Iași    Romania 382,484 290,422 2018[114]

Brașov    Romania 369,896 253,200 2018[114]

Kırklareli    Turkey 361,836 259,302 2019[123]

Timișoara    Romania 356,443 319,279 2018[114]

Novi Sad    Serbia 341,625 277,522 2018[124]

Split  Croatia 325,600 161,312 2021[117]

 
b Only the European part of Istanbul is a part of the Balkans.[125] It is home to two-thirds of
the city's 15,519,267 inhabitants.[112]

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Time zones

The time zones in the Balkans are defined as the following:

• Territories in the time zone of UTC+01:00: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia

• Territories in the time zone of UTC+02:00: Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania

• Territories in the time zone of UTC+03:00: Turkey

Culture

• Cuisine of the Balkans

• Balkan music

• Balkan Athletics Championships

• Balkan Athletics Indoor Championships

• Imagining the Balkans

Historiography

See also

• Balkan Insight

• Balkan Universities Network

• Balkanization

• History of the Balkans

◦ Balkan Wars

◦ Yugoslav Wars

• Languages of the Balkans

◦ Balkan sprachbund

• Balkan music

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Notes

a.   ^ The political status of Kosovo is disputed. Having unilaterally declared independence
from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo is formally recognised as an independent state by 101 UN
member states (with another 13 states recognising it at some point but then
withdrawing their recognition) and 92 states not recognizing it, while Serbia continues
to claim it as part of its own territory.

b.   ^ As The World Factbook cites (https://web.archive.org/web/20210110073821/https://

www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/turkey) , regarding Turkey and
Southeastern Europe; "that portion of Turkey west of the Bosphorus is geographically
part of Europe."

c.   ^ The population only of European Turkey, that excludes the Anatolian Peninsula, which
otherwise has a population of 75,627,384 and a density of 97.

d.   ^ See:[126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133]

e.   ^ See:[24][134][128][129][135][136][130][131][132][133]

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Further reading

• Gray, Colin S. (1999). Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy. London: Routledge.

ISBN 978-0-7146-8053-8.

• Banac, Ivo (October 1992). "Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe:

Yugoslavia". American Historical Review. 97 (4): 1084–1104. doi:10.2307/2165494 (htt
ps://doi.org/10.2307%2F2165494) . JSTOR 2165494 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/216
5494) .

• Banac, Ivo (1984). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics (http
s://archive.org/details/nationalquestion0000bana) . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
ISBN 978-0-8014-9493-2.

• Goldstein, Ivo (1999). Croatia: A History (https://archive.org/details/croatia00ivog) .

Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-2017-2.

• Carter, Francis W., ed. (1977). An Historical Geography of the Balkans Academic Press.

• Dvornik, Francis (1962). The Slavs in European History and Civilization Rutgers
University Press.

• Fine, John V. A., Jr. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the
Late Twelfth Century [1983]; The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late
Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
[1987].

• Forbes, Nevill (1915). The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Rumania,
Turkey Clarendon Press, online (https://archive.org/details/balkanshistoryof00forbuoft)

• Jelavich, Barbara (1983a). History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
(https://books.google.com/books?id=qR4EeOrTm-0C) . Vol. 1. Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0521274586.

• Jelavich, Barbara (1983b). History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century (https://books.go

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Balkans - Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans

ogle.com/books?id=Hd-or3qtqrsC) . Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.

ISBN 978-0521274593.

• Jelavich, Charles; Jelavich, Barbara, eds. (1963). The Balkans in Transition: Essays on
the Development of Balkan Life and Politics Since the Eighteenth Century (https://archi
ve.org/details/balkansintransit0000jela) . University of California Press.

• Kitsikis, Dimitri (2008). La montée du national-bolchevisme dans les Balkans. Le retour à

la Serbie de 1830. Paris: Avatar.

• Lampe, John R., and Marvin R. Jackson (1982). Balkan Economic History, 1550–1950:
From Imperial Borderlands to Developing Nations Indiana University Press.

• Király, Béla K., ed. (1984). East Central European Society in the Era of Revolutions,
1775–1856.

• Komlos, John (1990). Economic Development in the Habsburg Monarchy and in the
Successor States (https://archive.org/details/economicdevelopm0000unse_o8u2) . East
European Monographs No. 28. East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-177-7.

• Mazower, Mark (2000). The Balkans: A Short History (https://archive.org/details/balkan

sshorthist00mazo) . Modern Library Chronicles. New York: Random House.
ISBN 978-0-679-64087-5.

• Schreiber, Gerhard; Stegemann, Bernd; Vogel, Detlef (1995). The Mediterranean,

south-east Europe, and north Africa, 1939–1941 (https://books.google.com/books?id=G
O3_aoOzTi4C) . Germany and the 2nd World War. Vol. III. Clarendon Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-822884-4.

• Stavrianos, L. S. (2000) [1958]. The Balkans since 1453 (https://archive.org/details/bal

kanssince145300lsst) . with Traian Stoianovich. New York: NYU Press.
ISBN 978-0-8147-9766-2. online free to borrow (https://archive.org/details/balkanssinc
e145300lsst)

• Stoianovich, Traian (1994). Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe. Sources and
Studies in World History. New York: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-1-56324-032-4.

• Ware, Bishop Kallistos (Timothy) (29 April 1993). The Orthodox Church (new ed.). New
York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-014656-1.

• Zametica, John (2017). Folly and malice: the Habsburg empire, the Balkans and the start
of World War One London: Shepheard–Walwyn. 416 pp. ISBN 978-0856835131.

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Balkans - Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans

External links

• Balkan Insight – Analysis from Balkans (http://www.ba

Balkans
lkaninsight.com/) at Wikipedia's sister projects

• Balkanalysis, in-depth research on Balkan geopolitics

  Definitions from Wiktionary
(https://web.archive.org/web/20060617145859/http://
  Media from Commons
balkanalysis.com/)
  Quotations from Wikiquote
• Western Balkans Photo impression (https://www.face
  Texts from Wikisource
book.com/WesternBalkans)
Travel information from
  Wikivoyage
• Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe,
17th–21st Centuries (https://www.academia.edu/1869
8805/Shared_Pasts_in_Central_and_Southeast_Europe_17th_21st_Centuries_Hungaria
n_and_Bulgarian_Approaches._Eds._G%C3%A1bor_Demeter_Penka_Peykovska._Sofia
-Budapest_2015_440_p/) . Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015.

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